Roberto Cavalli

Maybe some of us have spent too much time on Hayu.com between the cities this season, but it seems Kim Kardashian has finally become a runway influence. It was the case at Fendi (whose campaign she currently graces) and more indirectly at Max Mara and Salvatore Ferragamo, who both zoned in on Mrs West’s signature neutral, dusty colour palette; not to mention Burberry the other day in London. At Roberto Cavalli, Paul Surridge adopted the same earthy tones – inspired by a recent trip to North Africa, which also informed his surface decoration – but it didn’t stop at beige, taupe and brown. There they were, Kim’s favourite odd wardrobe staple, the cycling short, appropriated by Surridge to literal Cavalli degree: that is, bedazzled in metallic embroideries like something out of the Ice Capades. Rumour has it the Asian market is wild about cycling shorts, which may explain their heavy presence in his third show for Cavalli. But Surridge said it was about security. “If she wears something micro, she’s also covered.”

The reason this season’s favoured colour scheme reads Kardashian is the fact that it’s the bourgeois go-to palette if you want to be seen as sophisticated. It’s true for any celebrity, who’s ever made the leap from non grata to the cover of Vogue, and for Surridge it has served a similar purpose. Since his debut show for Roberto Cavalli a year ago, he’s tried to unify the brand’s sumptuous and glitzy legacy with a certain sense of intellectualised chic, although his last collection and the show today seemed to refilter in many of the jazzy codes that must get the Cavalli-buying segment’s credit cards swiping. “Ornamentation and decoration have been a big part of the past. I wanted to bring it into a context that a young audience can understand, and push it forward,” he said, possibly referring to the bejewelled cycling shorts. And it’s a nice sentiment. Fabulous fashion is often under threat from minimalist fashion, its evil intellectual cousin, and we should celebrate it in all its glory rather than try to temper it into something it’s never going to be.

“Glitzy is always something very interesting. The idea of something very worked is very Cavalli. I just tried to put it into knitwear so everything is also sporty. You put it on, you move, you stretch, you’re not in chiffon, you’re not delicate. You’re empowered,” Surridge explained of the collection. “Bella was wearing a lamé hand-embroidered crop top that’s very ornamented, but it’s more in a context I hope younger women will enter into. It doesn’t have to be occasion, it can also be life.” Hear-hear! There’s a lot of love for Roberto Cavalli in this world – both the retired designer and the brand that Surridge now fronts – but bringing the youth to the ball is definitely this Englishman’s challenge. What often transpires in similar discussions with regards to any brand is that millennials aren’t as comprehensible as we would like to think. Rather, they’re acutely observant of authenticity and have been known to appreciate true glamour when they see it. Cavalli has all of that in its veins. As for Kim Kardashian, “If she would wear them, I’d be honoured,” Surridge said, referring to the cycling shorts of the season.